Hello dear friends! Guess what? EDGE is starting to take off. We having just about finished all systems checks, are buckled in and are ready to roll. The exciting news about that is, we are rolling out our official LINK’d by EDGE blog today! So, for a while, I will be cross posting between this space and that one. This blog is my baby, I’ve been here for a long time now, so I’m not ready to retire it completely, but I am also the primary writer for the LINK’d blog as well. So . . . the two will be sharing posts for a while. If you like what you read here, I would love it if you would jump over there and show your support on social media and perhaps follow along! Some of what you’ll find over there that won’t be here {as much} are updates on our projects and classes and how the institute is doing as it moves forward. Thanks in advance for your support! Now, here’s a snippet from today’s post on LINK’d . . .

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Every horror movie has that scene. The music plays, there’s no speaking, but you know exactly what’s going to happen. Your heart constricts, you dig your fingernails in, and wait for the killer to appear. Or in the comedy show, when they play the laugh track and you instinctively smile, even if you haven’t heard the joke. Background music has a way of cueing the audience in to what is going on. Cadence, in speaking, has a very similar role.

Cadence consists of the rhythm, tone, and pitch of your voice while speaking. It includes the way we finish a sentence when it’s a question rather than a statement. Think: “It’s lunch time?” versus “It’s lunch time.” The difference between those two statements is the cadence you use to communicate your meaning. Background music is rarely the star, but changes the entire feeling of a movie. Cadence plays a very similar role. Proper use of cadence can greatly lessen the work that a listener needs to do or the extent of explanation that a speaker needs to provide. So, the role of cadence for language learners can actually be quite useful. How, then should we approach cadence in the classroom? Here are a few questions and thoughts for you to consider.